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Public Libraries

Michigan Live has a Story on the doings at the Ann Arbor District Library. It seems they have stopped mailing over due notices, and only contact patrons by email. They have also more than doubled fines.

\"It\'s a major change in policy,\" said William Razgunas, a regular library user. \"Hollywood Video is for-profit, so they have no obligation to their customers to set the fine one way or another. But taxpayers don\'t support Hollywood Video.\"

Brian Smith sent in this link toPJStar.com which has a story on local fundraising efforts.
Peoria Public Library is selling fiberglas swine to local businesses, for the purpose of raising funds for a new bookmobile. Pigs will be decorated and displayed, a la the \"Cows on Parade\" in Chicago last year.

The 5-foot-long fiberglass replicas due Friday are destined for artistic expression as part of a Peoria Public Library fund-raiser for a new bookmobile. Under the Peoria Is Great (PIG) program, Friends of the Library have sold 16 of the porkers at $500 a pop to local businesses or organizations.

The buyers have engaged artists to thematically decorate the pigs, which will be displayed early next month at the offices of sponsors before being offered for sale.

The Savannah
Morning News has a Story on the lack of
libarians in a new library. The article does not say
what caused the shortage. Because of staffing shortages, the
library originally opened at just eight hours a week and
that was increased as new people were hired.Is this good news for those
currently working on their MLS?

The Roanoke Times Has this nice story on how well the
Chesapeake Public Library System is doing.

\"Last year,
an article in the magazine American Libraries ranked the
Chesapeake system seventh best in the nation among libraries
serving a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
On the local level, 99.4 percent of Chesapeake\'s
residents approve of their library service, the highest mark
earned by any branch of the city\'s government.

All hopes for endless supplies of Guinness in public libraries are dashed. Read this story from Yahoo UK.

Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols pop guru who was campaigning to become mayor of London, is to pull out of the race and back another candidate, the Independent newspaper has reported.

McLaren, whose best-publicised policies were to legalise brothels and cannabis and install bars to serve alcohol in libraries, will announce next week that he is standing aside to support independent candidate Ken Livingstone, the paper said.

Thomas J. Hennen Jr. writes \"The second edition of the HAPLR Index was featured in the September 1999 issue of American Libraries magazine. The author, Thomas J. Hennen Jr. of Wisconsin, uses data provided by nearly 9,000 public libraries in the United States to create comparative rankings. The comparisons are in broad population categories. It provides a comparative rating system that librarians, trustees and the public can use to improve and extend library services in the third millennium.

Also available on the site is information expanding the Thomas J. Hennen Jr.\'s call for national library standards in the March 2000 issue of American Libraries.
The site is available at:haplr-index.com\"

Be sure to read this editorial on collection development and selction practices from Steve Decker. Libraries need to address every patron\'s needs, whether they shop at WalMart or Lord and Taylor

Public Libraries: Where Designer Store meets Department Store

When we decide the library has the resources and space to develop a collection of music there will be those that will tell us that we need the classics–we need to honor and expand the minds of the public by presenting to them \"good\" music.
The Library\'s job is to \"offer.\" We have Shakespeare and Steinbeck but we also have Steel and Sheldon.
Oh, there are always matters of selection to be addressed. Let us address them together for the betterment of our public libraries.